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Mallya extradition judgment to be handed down December 10

The government of India wants to extradite Mallya, 62, to face charges of fraud and cheating after defaulting on loans worth Rs 9,000 crore from Indian banks to his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

| TNN | Updated: Sep 13, 2018, 08:28 IST

Highlights

There is an awful lot to get through and I am going to have to go into the detail: Chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot

The government of India wants to extradite Mallya, 62, to face charges of fraud and cheating after defaulting on loans worth Rs 9,000 crore from Indian banks to his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines

Vijay Mallya moved to Britain in March 2016. (Photo: Reuters)

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LONDON: A judgment as to whether fugitive Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya should be extradited to face charges in India will be made on December 10 by Westminster magistrates’ court.

Chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot made the announcement on Wednesday after hearing closing submissions in the year-and-a-half-long case, adding, “There is an awful lot to get through and I am going to have to go into the detail.”

In her closing oral submissions Mallya’s barrister, Clare Montgomery QC, said the video of the prison cell Mallya would stay in is a “varnished version” and hinted the charges were politically motivated, claiming that CBI special director Rakesh Asthana had “threatened banks with reprisals” if they did not file charges against the liquor baron.

Montgomery also told the court that there “was no evidence” from the government of India and referred to much of it as “bizarre”.

The government of India wants to extradite Mallya, 62, to face charges of fraud and cheating after defaulting on loans worth Rs 9,000 crore from Indian banks to his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

“One of the features you may have to consider is whether this case is being fought for reasons other than ordinary criminal law ones. There is no evidence and the prosecution has persisted in refusing to give you all the documents that show this was lending supported by the State Bank of India,” Montgomery said.

She then went on to attack Asthana, who was sitting in court.

“This is a matter in which the CBI have been forced to file charges and I hope you recall the newspaper report which states that Rakesh Asthana went to heads of banks and threatened them with reprisals if they did not file charges against Mallya. If that was fake news you would have thought it would have been dealt with. Asthana has been solemnly sitting in court throughout,” she said

She told the court Mallya has made offers to settle — the most recent one being one worth nearly £1.5 billion before the Karnataka high court. “The idea this was a carefully thought out strategy by him with the knowledge Kingfisher Airlines was bound to fail is nonsense. It is a financial disaster for him, as much as the banks, as the result of a failing airline failing to recover,” she said.

“Can a jury safely exclude this being an ordinary commercial loan which failed for ordinary commercial reasons?”

She sought to disprove allegations that the loans had been obtained by supplying false information relating to Kingfisher profits. “The (airline) losses were known to IDBI and openly debated,” she said.

She tried to dismiss claims Mallya had sought to avoid meeting the obligations of the securities he offered. She said the personal guarantee from Mallya was “regarded as having little value by the bank itself” and the corporate guarantees were “regarded as being of limited value”.

Montgomery also ripped into a video of the barracks at Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail where Mallya will be housed, sent by the CBI to Arbuthnot, and demanded a prison visit. “Someone has done a hasty clean-up job before the video was shot. The prison has been specially painted to achieve the requisite brightness in the rooms — and either a different or new lavatory put in to provide you with a varnished version of prison conditions,” Montgomery said.

“They take a video that clearly shows the gloom that settles on this building — it is encased in what is effectively a steel oven so you may consider it is impossible to be satisfied there is humane lighting and ventilation,” she said, adding the “conditions in Arthur Road generally don’t meet the standard”.

Mark Summers QC, representing the government of India, said he “profoundly disagreed” about the lack of evidence. “There is ample and copious evidence the loans advanced to KFA ought to have been used to pay existing creditors. They were not. They were used in the most part for general Kingfisher purposes.”

He added the money also went to Mallya’s motor racing team disguised as fuel charges and on “cash withdrawals in Goa”, and “even sending a tranche of money back to UBHL, the guarantor of the loan. That calls for an answer.”

He added: “There is a prima facie case to be answered in relation to what KFA knew internally and what it was representing to the banks.”

Summers also referred to the conclusions of the London high court which “endorse the findings of Indian courts who attached Mallya’s assets” that he “had no intent of repayment of the loans”.

Mallya sat in the dock, occasionally yawning, adjusting his tie and sipping water.

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